I explained that these were called “Screen Tests” and that Warhol made them of almost everyone he met but that no, nothing else would actually happen on the screen. I said that they were sort of film portraits that revealed a lot by doing very little. She nodded and said, “So, there’s no biographical information coming up?” As I answered no she walked off with a disappointed look. I don’t add this to make fun or stand above. Sometimes the hardest things to see are right in front of us.

America is all about surfaces. Walk through any city and you’ll see it. Shiny glass and mirrors echo every move. What space isn’t reflective is cluttered with repeated logos and advertisements. So perhaps Andy Warhol’s art can fill us in on the most prevalent features and details of this country. It’s all there; the deaths, the ads, the old west, the celebrities, the surface. In a sense walking through this exhibit of Warhol’s work is a photorealistic portrait of life in America, Dream America, Daydream Nation.